In the space of 24 hours last week, southern Germany witnessed two spectacular rescue operations.

Both involved men who had become trapped deep inside cave-like structures, and a large rescue team working together to set them free. But if explorer Johann Westhauser is expected to soon tell the world how he got
trapped inside Germany’s deepest cave, an anonymous exchange student may prefer to keep quiet about the story of how he got into a tight spot.

On Friday afternoon, 22 firefighters had to rescue a young American in Tübingen after he got trapped inside a giant sculpture of a vagina.
The
Making Love artwork by Peruvian artist Fernando de la Jara has been outside Tübingen University’s institute for microbiology and virology since 2001 and previously attracted mainly juvenile sniggers rather than adventurous explorers.

According to De la Jara, the 32-ton sculpture made out of red Veronese marble is meant to signify “the gateway to the world”.

Police confirmed that the firefighters-turned-midwives delivered the student “by hand and without the application of tools”.

The mayor of Tübingen told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that he struggled to imagine how the accident could have happened, “even when considering the most extreme adolescent fantasies. To reward such a masterly achievement with the use of 22 firefighters almost pains my soul.”